


A Simple Scent of Summer

by hippydeath



Series: Sunset Borderline [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 16:36:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12752079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hippydeath/pseuds/hippydeath
Summary: A summer evening barbecue and some stargazing, what more do you want from life?





	A Simple Scent of Summer

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when I'm supposed to be writing other fic. Fluff.
> 
> Find me in [tumblr](http://tumblr.com/anonymousblueberry) or something

It’s the fact that Millie isn’t incessantly yowling at him to be fed that clues him in to the fact that something is amiss. His cat may be what Kylo calls a free spirit, but she doesn’t miss dinner time unless something is very wrong.

It’s nearly six, half an hour after her usual dinner time, when he looks up from his screen to realise that she’s not in the room, and nor can he hear her clawing at the cupboard door where her food is kept.

He gets up and stretches, then heads for the kitchen, which is when he notices the faint smell of smoke for the first time. The kitchen is clear when he reaches is, but the back door is open, and he can hear the distinct sound of flames crackling.

“Kylo?!” he calls, already heading for the back door. He hadn’t seen his boyfriend for several hours, not since he got engrossed in his work, and several horrifying scenarios present themselves as what could be going on.

The shout of “Out here!” comes just as he reaches the back door.

It’s not a scene he was expecting. Rather than chaos, the garden appears to have gained a barbecue at some point in the afternoon, and Kylo is poking at the burning coals. There are a couple of covered plates on the table, and Millie is watching him from one of the garden chairs, tail twitching every now and again.

“Kylo, what?” Hux pushes his glasses up on top of his head so he can check he’s not actually seeing things.

Putting the lid back on the barbecue, Kylo saunters over to Hux and pulls him in for a kiss. He’s wearing baggy shorts and an old, stretched out t-shirt, and his hair is tied back with what looks like the elastic band from a bunch of spring onions. Hux is utterly smitten all over again and happily leans into the kiss.

“I didn’t feel like standing in the kitchen. I made some burgers and kebabs.” Kylo explains, dropping a kiss on Hux’s head and going back to the barbecue.

“Since when did we own a barbecue?” Hux asks, picking Millie up and plonking her in his lap as he sits down. It’s pleasantly warm now, instead of offensively hot as it had been earlier in the day.

“I went and bought it while you were engrossed in your office.”

With the lid lifted, there’s another brief plume of smoke and Kylo coughs, trying to waft it away.

“Nearly ready to put food on, and there’s salad in the fridge.”

“Have you fed Millie?” Hux asks, scratching her behind the ears.

“Hmm? No, she’s been asleep out here most of the afternoon.”

“Do you want dinner Millie?” he asks, leaning down over her. She meows and hops off his lap, which he takes as a yes and follows her back into the kitchen.

Millie dances round his legs as he cleans out her bowls and refills them, and as soon as they’re back on the floor, she shoves her face into the food bowl. He laughs and checks the fridge for the salad. In typical Kylo style, it’s not just some leaves and a bit of cucumber, but apparently the entire salad drawer, and there’s a jar of mustard heavy vinaigrette next to it. Hux smiles. He can cook, but he’s lazy, while Kylo has some kind of aversion to processed food, and spends almost as much time in the kitchen as he does at the gym (Hux understands neither, but is more than willing to reap the benefits of both).

There’s beer in the fridge as well, and Hux grabs and opens a couple of bottles before he goes back out, Millie still happily stuffing her face.

 

“Cheers,” Kylo takes the bottle once he’s finished positioning burgers and meat and vegetable ladened skewers on the grill. “You gave up on the contract read through then?”

Hux grimaces and nods. Kylo had obviously noticed him playing Warcraft, again. “Legal are idiots and the sales manager needs shooting. I’ll deal with it tomorrow.” He sits himself back down in the chair, taking his glasses off the top of his head and leaving them on the table.

“So you figured you’d kill some pixels instead?”

“Yup.” Hux swigs from the beer bottle, “What about you, this can’t have taken you all afternoon?

Kylo takes the other chair and sighs contentedly. “Finished my essay, finished the notes for Tuesday’s induction, did some food shopping.”

Hux hums. “Is that your last module finished?”

“Yeah, thank fuck.”

“So we’re celebrating?” Hux asks with a slight smirk.

Kylo laughs. “Definitely, but food first!”

“I’m shocked that you thought I could mean any other kind of celebration than good food and good beer!” Hux laughs, shoving him.

 

Kylo goes back to the barbecue, and Millie poddles back outside, nose twitching at the smell of cooking meat. Hux picks her up and hugs her, ignoring Kylo’s exclamation of “cat food breath!” as he kisses her.

All he can hear for a while is the quiet sizzling of food on the barbecue, the birds moving around in the trees and the low noises of their neighbours enjoying similarly relaxed evenings. It’s everything he ever wanted, and it’s terrifying in its domesticity.

“Did you ever think we’d end up like this?” He asks as Kylo comes back out with the salad and some bread rolls.

“Like what?” Kylo snags a lump of pepper from the salad and looks at Hux.

“Like this. Domestic. Relaxed. I don’t know.” Hux shakes his head and Kylo kneels next to him, ignoring the barbecue.

“Is this not what you want?” he asks, frowning.

“No,” Hux quickly replied. “Fuck no. It’s just not something I was expecting. Least of all with some dickhead office junior who heckled the whole way through my presentation.” He smiles and leans in to kiss Kylo. “Sorry.”

“It was a shit presentation.” Kylo reminds him. “And it’s not what I was expecting either, but here we are, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

They sit like that, leaning in close to each other for a couple of minutes until Hux catches a flash of ginger behind Kylo.

“Fuck. Millie, no!” he lunges for his cat who is just about to jump up onto the barbecue. He catches her and she yowls at him, Kylo laughing unhelpfully from where he’s ended up sprawled on the floor.

“Bad girl.” Hux admonishes the wriggly cat in his arms. “I’m shutting her inside while we eat. Maybe time to get those kebabs off before they become part of the charcoal?”

He goes inside, ignoring Kylo’s continued laughter as he dumps Millie in his office.

On his way back out he grabs the salad dressing and two more beers from the fridge, stopping briefly in the doorway to enjoy the view of Kylo plating up their food, the early evening sun shining off his hair.

 

Without Millie harassing them for scraps, dinner is pleasant; the food is excellent, and Kylo grins at Hux’s praise.

The sky dims to reds and oranges, the odd wispy cloud floating across, and as they eat, they watch as the flocks of birds are replaced by bats darting around.

“Which direction are you going on Tuesday?” Hux asks as he pulls a mushroom carefully off the skewer.

“Open with the basics and see what kind of knowledge base I’m working with from there,” Kylo is leaning back in his chair, burger in hand, licking relish off his wrist. “I’m hoping they give me a slightly more advanced group than they did last time. It’d be nice to use what I know rather than just regurgitating the first year modules.”

“I’m sure you’ll get what they think you’re capable of.” Hux assures him, “And if not, you can set up a grill van, these are amazing.”

“It’s just garlic and rosemary, “Kylo deflects, “and I’d rather be managing people than serving them food.”

They both laugh and go back to eating, eventually stacking their empty plates over the leftovers to keep off the circling bugs.

The solar lights dotted around the patio have started to light up, and Kylo gets up and stretches, pulling the elastic band out of his hair and running a hand through it. Then, with more grace than Hux could ever manage, he drops to the grass, folding his arms behind his head, staring up at the now mostly dark sky.

After a few minutes, he reaches his arm out to Hux. “Come stargaze with me?” He asks.

Hux gets up, but starts to collect the plates. “Let me take these in first.”

“No, Hux,” Kylo tilts his head back to look at Hux, tilting his hips up as he does it, “Come here, they’re fine where they are.”

“But,” Hux stops himself and considers. It’s been a good evening, too good to ruin by letting his need to have everything neat and tidy upset Kylo. He relents too easily, another thing that terrifies him, and he puts the plates carefully back down before he goes and joins Kylo on the grass.

The sky is lightly dusted with clouds, but more prominent are the stars starting to show against the darkness.

Kylo knocks their shoulders together, then leans over and stretches his arm out, pointing up at the sky. “So what’s that one?” he asks, and Hux knows he’s smirking as he does it, because this is one of their things.

Hux leans against him and reaches up to twine their arms together. “That one?” He checks, feeling Kylo nod against him. “The head of the dragon, or one of the four mother camels, or,” he stops and thinks, “the fourth star of the celestial flail. Scientifically it’s Gamma Draconis, brighter than Beta Draconis,” he moves their joined hands over slightly to point to the other star, “and far brighter than Thuban, which used to be the pole star.”

“So it’s part of draco?” Kylo asks, although he knows the answer.

“It is, cast up into the sky by Minerva.” Hux looks over at Kylo, just in time for Kylo to lean in for a kiss.

Kylo pulls Hux onto his lap, holding him in place as they kiss until Hux wriggles so he’s kneeling over Kylo’s thighs.

“Have I ever told you how gorgeous you are when you’re being smart?” Kylo asks, and Hux ducks his head down, “you get this look in your eye, like you know you’re smarter than everyone around you, like you have all this power over people.”

Hux shakes his head and laughs, “If I’d known some basic astronomy was all it took to interest you, I could have saved so much on fancy dinners.”

“I liked the fancy dinners.” Kylo leans up for another kiss. “But I think I prefer the barbecue and stargazing now.”

“I definitely do,” Hux replies, and pushes himself up. “Apart from the clearing up. Come on, before the ants get in it.”

With an exaggerated sigh, Kylo hauls himself up and helps Hux stack their few plates up, balancing the salad bowl on top of them. While Hux takes them inside, he lifts the lid of the barbecue, checking that it’s almost all reduced to ash and cooling down.

Then he follows Hux inside, locking the door as he goes, and finds Hux scrubbing the worst of the encrusted sauce off the plates.

“Bed,” Kylo suggests, pressing up against Hux, wrapping one arm round his waist and turning the tap off with the other.

Hux makes a displeased noise, and puts the plate he was rinsing down. “It’s not even ten yet.”

“I know, but we are celebrating.” he kisses the top of Hux’s shoulder, pulling him closer now that the tap is off and he’s not holding crockery.

Hux turns in his arms, “Oh I see, you finish your last module, and make me dinner, and then you want me to put out?” he asks, the grin on his face destroying any pretence of offence or upset.

“I cook for you most nights!” Kylo laughs.

Hux leans up for a quick, closed mouth kiss, “Well, I suppose, since we are celebrating.”

“What can I do to properly convince you?” Kylo asks, still grinning.

“Kiss me?” Hux tilts his face up, but as Kylo goes to kiss him, he wriggles out of Kylo’s grip and with a laugh, darts for the stairs.

He makes it to their room a few steps ahead of Kylo and throws himself on the bed, pulling his shirt over his head and flinging it in Kylo’s face as he comes through the door.

Kylo throws it to the floor and pauses to look at Hux, sprawled back on the bed, hand on the button of his trousers.

“Oh it’s going to be like that is it?” Kylo asks as he advances on the bed, and Hux just smirks.

**Author's Note:**

> My astronomy is dodgy at best, and everything here comes from wikipedia, assuming that the two of them live somewhere in England, and are stargazing at some point in the summer (which is probably when I started writing this)  
> Just accept that Hux is a WoW playing, star gazing, contract hating nerd, and all will be well.


End file.
